Setting Off for Finland: Departure, Arrival and Settling In
Dear Reader, Welcome to the first of hopefully many blogs I will write to reflect on my 10 or so months in Helsinki, Finland. I’ve enjoyed putting this together and I hope you get something out of it as well. Let’s start from the beginning shall we? On April 6th, 2021 I was sitting on my couch in the living room of my beloved and dearly missed Burlington apartment. I remember feeling sluggish and generally a bit off that morning. In particular, I felt overwhelmed by my thesis work, the date of my defense only a month away, not to mention graduation only two weeks after that. I had just gotten out of my political science seminar—on Microsoft Teams, of course #covidseniorspring—and opened up my inbox to find an email with the subject line Fulbright U.S. Student Program Application Update . My heart rose to my throat, my hands shaky and sweaty. With my breath held I opened the email, quickly scanning the text, my eyes landing on the words congratulations and we ar...